Apple loses out on iPod playlist patent suit to the tune of $8 million

Apple has been ordered to pay $8 million in damages to a patent holding …

Apple has been ordered to shell out $8 million for infringing on playlist patents owned by a company called Personal Audio LLC despite Apple's insistence that the patents were invalid. According to Bloomberg, the jury in the Eastern district of Texas made its decision late Friday, upholding the validity of the patents and slapping Apple with penalties.

Personal Audio is a Texas-based patent holding company that makes its money from licensing its intellectual property to companies like Apple. In 2009, the firm filed suit against Apple, Sirius XM Radio, Archos, and Coby Electronics for violating two of its patents that, as pointed out by FOSS Patents, share a common specification from October of 1996. The patents generally cover downloadable playlists on a device, allowing the user to skip around using the device's controls.

Apple's original iPod first made its public debut in the fall of 2001 and the playlists were "downloaded" from a user's computer. According to Personal Audio's original complaint, Apple has been violating the patents ever since with the introduction of every new iPod or iPhone, and the patent firm originally wanted $84 million in damages.

Apple had tried to get the case moved out of the notoriously patent-troll-friendly Eastern Texas district, but was denied in early 2010. In mid-2010, Sirius XM Radio, Archos, and Coby Electronics all decided to bow out with settlements, leaving Apple as the lone holdout in fighting Personal Audio. The other defendants apparently had the right idea, though, as the jury sided with Personal Audio when making its decision last week.

Still, $8 million is a far cry from $84 million—what happened there? Apple apparently presented (just three weeks before the decision) more than 6,300 pages of documentation showing that it had developed the iPod's playlist system on its own, but the judge was unamused by the late filing and smacked Apple with a monetary sanction of $10,000 "in order to deter future similar conduct both by Apple and by other litigants." Still, that documentation may have been what brought the infringement penalties down, though it's unclear as to whether Apple plans to pay up or appeal.